sulking

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"sulking" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“sulking” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #48,518. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#48,518
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
18
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of one who sulks.

Corpus desk

Index EN-sulking · sulking · English

sulking · rank #48,518 · 11 variants · 18 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #48,518
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 18 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH Sunnyside

Nearest frequency peer: Sunnyside (+1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “sulking”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “sulking” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

sulking vs surfing
71% similar
sulking vs summing
71% similar
sulking vs suing
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for sulking
PropertyValue
Headwordsulking
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Frequency rank#48,518
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs18
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “sulking”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).sulkinglands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “Sunnyside” (#48,519), “Tallulah” (#48,520), “Tannehill” (#48,521). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “sulking” is #48,518. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around sulking, anoun. Corpus frequency is #48,518 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "The act of one who sulks.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for sulking, with forms such as "sluking", "ssulking", and "sukling". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 18 confusable-pair relationships, "surfing", "summing", "suing", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is sulking, spelled S-U-L-K-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act of one who sulks.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how sulking appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. "He has seen you, too, he says; and thinks you have seen him, hey?" and Dangerfield chuckled more and more knowingly, and watched his shiftings and sulkings with a pleasant grin, as he teased and quizzed him in his own enigmatical way.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • sluking
  • ssulking
  • sukling
  • sulikng
  • sulkign
  • sulkingg
  • sulkinng
  • sulkking
  • sulknig
  • sullking
  • uslking

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sulking - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

sluking2ssulking1sukling2sulikng2sulkign2sulkingg1sulkinng1sulkking1
Edit distance from "sulking"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sulking"?
"sulking" is spelled S-U-L-K-I-N-G.
What does "sulking" mean?
As a noun, "sulking" means: The act of one who sulks.
What words are commonly confused with "sulking"?
"sulking" is commonly confused with "surfing", "summing", "suing". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "sulking" come from?
"sulking" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sulking", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

tatters#48,523Tomkins#48,532Spenser#48,502spanner#48,499

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

vagueness11 variantsSnowdon11 variantsvalerian11 variantssledding11 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list